Packaging systems typically add dunnage to a shipping container to protect products being shipped. The dunnage fills a void in the container left over after the products have been placed in the container, and cushions the products and/or prevents or minimizes movement of the products in the container during shipment.
Some packaging systems, particularly when dispensing dunnage to random container sizes and/or containers packed with random size and/or shape objects, scan a container and calculate a void volume and then determine a quantity of dunnage to dispense to fill the void in the container. The system then instructs a dunnage dispenser to dispense the determined quantity of dunnage to the void.
When an automated system fills a series of containers having the same size, variations in the void volume can be within a range of compressibility of the dunnage. This means that dunnage can be dispensed to most containers without scanning each container, and calculating the void volume, and then determining how much dunnage to dispense to each container. Within the range of compressibility, the same quantity of dunnage can be automatically dispensed to every container.